Ms. Donnahoo’s Classroom News Monday, September 8, 2014 A huge thank you to Juvon’s mom and Maadison’s mom for volunteering in our classroom! No holiday parties! Speaking of birthdays… it is a school-wide rule that birthdays are ONLY celebrated during our lunch time. If you choose to bring in a birthday treat for your child on their special day, please be sure to bring enough for everyone (16 students). You can meet us in the cafeteria at 10:30. I’ll need a parent to stay for the whole lunch time to help with pass out and clean up. Our lunch is from 10:30- 10:50. Thanks for your cooperation and understanding that we do not have time for parties during our instructional day. Please be sure to ALWAYS have a change of clothes in your child’s bookbag. Accidents do happen sometimes! Please remember to encourage your child to SOAR each day. Be sure to review their earned points EACH night and to initial on the day. Each student checked out one library book last Thursday. It is due back this coming Thursday in order to check out another one. Please help your child get into a routine of returning their book each Thursday. If your child is involved in any extra curricular activities, please send me a schedule! I always try to attend at least one event for each student during the school year. I want your child to know that I care for them inside and outside of school! If you need to change your child’s transportation one day, write the change on the behavior calendar on that date. I will see this change at the end of the day when I go to give your child points. I’ll be sure to remind them of this change at that time. If you need to make a permanent change, send in a note in the Binder and I will make note of this. Your child MUST have a note in order for me to send them home a different way. I can not take your child’s word for it. Thanks for your cooperation in properly communicating this change, if it comes up, in order to get your child safely home to you. A BIG thank you to the parents who have already followed this procedure. This week in Readers’ Workshop, we are reading lots of color books and focusing on the cool colors of the color wheel ( green, blue, purple ) and their spelling We will also squeeze in some time for pink ( can’t leave out PINK ), white and black ( which techniqually are not colors due to the amount of wavelenghts of visible light, or the lack there of ), and brown ( whatcha get when you mix ‘ em all together !). We will also discuss the colors that are considered primary and secondary. ( Although, some already pointed this out last week ! I guess you know when you’re at a creative arts school ! :) Thanks to those who sent in red and yellow “ junk” for our SOAR board last week. I’d love to see more red and yellow as well as green and blue “ junk” for our board this week ! Also, please continue to send in enviornmental print. I’ve decided to make a book of all of these words that we know how to read. It wil be added to our classroom library ! We will also use our reading block to review last week’s skils ( syllables, beginning sounds, and sequencing ) through small group literacy stations as I work to individually assess students in order to grow a better understanding of them as readers. In Writers’ Workshop we are continuing to prepare ourselves for producing individual booklets of writing. We are working to recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence ( first word capitalization, spacing, ending punctuation ). In Social Studies we are discussing family. What is a family ? How are families alike and different ? How do families live and work together ? In math, we continuing to extend the counting sequence. Your child should be able to count to 120 and begin counting on at any given number. We will use our 100 s chart this week as a tool in mastering our number sense. Next week, we will look at the number line as a tool for counting on. - Our first PTA Night of the school year is this Wednesday, September 10 at 6:00. You will get to hear Principal Hansen and PTA board members share school information in the cafeteria. After that, you’ll also be invited to meet with us first grade teachers in the media center for first grade information/business. You and your family may join us at 5:30 for a dinner provided by our PTA. The meeting begins at 6:00. -Progress Reports and Early Dismissal is next Wednesday, September 17. Students will dismiss at 12:30. Please tell me below if your child will be going home a different way than normal due to early dismissal *Transporation change here for Sept 17 (if applies): _________________________________________________________ -CCSD has set aside September 17 as an Early Dismissal day so that parents and teachers can conference. Please see my attached conference sign up sheet and return by Thursday of this week. -Our first OWL Celebration for the school year is Friday, September 27, 2014!